Winter is coming and it's time for 80 metres!

Birds on a wire . . . Starlings sitting on the apex of my
inverted V system. The 30/40/80 legs are perpendicular to
each other. I trimmed the 80 v for resonance at 3.510.

I know it's still only September. And yes, the weather has been largely very good here in Ireland. We are getting an Indian summer. However, the days are getting shorter rapidly. It's past the equinox now, and as the days contract in length, it's time to start thinking about winter and the lower bands. Yesterday evening, having analysed my nest of V dipoles, I could see that my 80m inverted V was resonant at 3.4 Mhz. Too low. It needed to be shortened. So I trimmed some wire off each end and got it beautifully resonant on 3.510 Mhz. Nice! Time for some winter time DXing on 80 metres.

Yesterday morning, I managed a QSO with YV8AD on the upper part of the band using 100 watts. Hopefully I will be able to work some DX on SSB in future as I now find that even on the upper part of the band the antenna has an SWR of around 4:1. I know this is technically too high, but it means it can be tuned fairly easily, and I might get a few hundred watts out with the linear.

I took this screenshot immediately after working HC2AO on 80 metres.
As you can see, I was almost exactly on the greyline.

I got up at 6am today in the hope that Nigel ZD9XF would be on either 40 or 80 metres from Tristan Da Cunha. Unfortunately he was QRT. So I decided instead to see what DX was "on offer" HI HI. I worked PJ5/OL8R with 100 watts on 80 cw. That was a handy contact. Then 8R1AE popped up from Guyana on 40m CW as a potential new one so I started chasing him. That turned into a mammoth affair as I battled with all the German, French, Czech and other European stations. It was tough going. He is a slow op on the CW key, but had a steady rate and managed the pile-up without too much fuss. At around 7.15am local time, I saw on the Reverse Beacon Network that HC2AO was CQing on 3.504 Mhz. I went straight down there like a shot, but could hear nothing. Damn. Had I missed him again, for a second morning in a row? Then the RBN spotted him again, this time on 3.508. Up I went and sure enough, there he was. He tried to work a SM station several times but eventually had to give up. We were approaching greyline. I knew this was the perfect moment. I pounced with "EI2KC". Immediately he came back with "EI2KC 5NN BK". I gave him the usual five nine nine and I was in the log. Another new one on 80 metres, and it's not even winter yet! That's country #147 on 80.

I went back to 40m to chase the 8R1. It took a long while, but eventually at 7.50am I managed to get him in the log. I think one new one on 80 and one new one on 40 is a very good result for an early morning. I can see myself going to bed early and setting the alarm for 6am more often during the coming winter. It can be very rewarding.

A great weekend for DX despite conditions

Despite the bands not being in great shape it was a good weekend on the bands. With varying power and different antennas I managed to nab a number of DXCC on new bands and new band slots. Here is a brief summary:

C91JD in Mozambique was a highlight of the weekend

TJ3AY (Cameroon) on 17m SSB, nabbed with 100 watts after just a few calls. New band slot.

JW7XM (Svalbard) on 17m SSB, with 100 watts. New band slot.

6O0CW (Somalia) on 30m CW, 100 watts and my home brew inverted V. Rare one and new band!

HD2A (Eduador) on 20m SSB with my Butternut vertical and 300w.

VK3TC (Australia) on 40m CW. Fought through serious QRM to get him but he was nice and clear.

6O0CW (Somalia) worked again on 17m CW with just 100 watts.

AP2IA (Pakistan) on 17m SSB with 400 watts, new band slot.

3B8FA (Mauritius) on 17m SSB, with 400 watts. Weak enough but worked as a new slot!

5N7M (Nigeria) - Ivan worked me on 80m CW the other night to give me a new one on 80, and today he gave me a new band slot with 17m SSB, worked first call with just 100 watts.

C91JD (Mozambique) - I had only ever worked this country on 12m CW, so to add 12m SSB was a great pleasure. It took a while and he was weak with QSB but got me in the log after about 20 minutes' calling.
E40VB (Palestine) - sat listening for ages on 12m SSB and he finally came out of the noise. I worked him 1st call with 400 watts. New band slot!
6O0CW (Somalia) was worked again, this time on 17m SSB, giving a new band slot!

UPDATE!!! RI1ANF (VP8-H South Shetland Islands) Heard quite well on 17m so I gave it a try. The pile-up got big very quick so he went split, and I was the second person to work him on the split. VP8-H is a brand new DXCC for me, country number 261!

RI1ANF (VP8-H South Shetland Islands) Soon after working him on 17m CW he was QRV on 20m CW. I worked him after a while with my Butternut vertical. New country on 20m!!!!!

Another highlight of the weekend was working CT3NA in Madeira on 6 metres. That was DXCC number 57 for me on that band !